Sunday, March 28, 2010

Bacon Caramel and a tale of the wild wild west

As I was cutting the caramel to take the picture, I have to confess that I must have eaten about 4 pieces. In my mind, I am not a 'sweet' person, but rather salty. Then I start thinking... Yup, I do eat the leftover crème brûlées in the fridge at work, for breakfast. I have no remorse eating cake as the first meal of my day either. Maybe I am a bit upside down: I just feel I don't need dessert after dinner.

I guess the caramels in my tummy this morning felt just right because there is bacon in it. Bacon is morning food.

These are really easy to do, they just take a bit of time and attention. You can let your mind wander into an afternoon fantasy as you stare at the caramel, waiting for it to reach the right temperature. The recipe is at the end of the post...

I made these for the Victoire Wild West party, 4 hours that I didn't see go by. I was quite worried that I would not have enough food (so I came overly prepared), or that the fryer would blow up in my face (yes, the fear of fryers...), or that I would set someone on fire with the blowtorch... But none of that happened. I was on the nose for food, we even had a bit to ourselves:

Marie-Camille, Nick and I snacking on the first batch of corn fritters, these were just too big to pass around...

I met a lovely artist whom I have admired for quite awhile now, here is Geneviève with the late night smores:

We had some live entertainement in the basement for a couple of minutes:

I really admire people who choose to make a living out of catering, I only do this once or twice a year for friends - I am always worried to forget things, thus, little lists:

This was a very pleasant evening, I met some new people, tried my best not to crawl under the counters and really enjoyed some mini pulled pork sandwiches with y'all!

Bacon Caramels

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup corn syrup

1/2 cup butter

1 cup heavy cream, divide into two equal portions

1/4 cup maple syrup

Cook your bacon to a crisp. I had about 15 strips of double smoked from Aubrey's for a double recipe of the caramel. Blot with paper towels to remove the extra fat and cut into pieces.

Reserve 1/2 cup of the heavy cream. Combine all the other ingredients in a sauce pan with high sides as the caramel will bubble up. Stir to combine. Set on medium heat. Stir occasionally and cook until 240*, this should take about 15 minutes. Remove from the stove and carefully stir in the remaining 1/2 cup cream. The temperature will go back down to about 230*. Place back on the heat and continue to cook to 245*. Immediately remove from heat and stir in a portion of the crispy bacon. Pour the caramel into a buttered dish, scatter the remaining bacon on top and give it a little stir if you want the bacon to sink in. Let set for at least 3 hours before cutting.

I used a 9x13 pan for a double recipe, so 8x8 would be perfect for a simple. Last time I did these I put parchment paper in my dish, I found that this helped to get the caramel out - I simply lifted the paper out and lay the caramel on a cutting board. It works well with a buttered dish too, you just have to wait for the caramel to reach room temp to cut it.

Marysol! I cannot believe how lucky we are to know you and have you as a friend! You know we would do anything for you (we certainly owe you!), and we're honestly blown away by how much you surpass yourself each time!! Can't wait for you to come shopping soon so we can really thank you! And by the way, my favourites were the pogos & cornbread. (I honestly just caught myself from listing off your entire menu, it was genuinely hard to narrow it down to 2 favourites!!)

Salut Marysol!I had the best time serving all your lovely food to the guests (and staff) at the party! I'm so happy to have met you and hope we'll see each other again soon. Great job on the food, everything was amazing and my favourites were definitely the veggie pogos and the dip! I'll be following this blog closely from now on.

I was so weirded out by this idea that I had to try it. It is pretty amazing salty sweetness. The difficulty is getting anyone to help me eat it because everyone I offer it to is also weirded out! Thanks for the idea.

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À propos

This blog started out as a diary of what we ate at home on a daily basis. I cook everything from scratch, so it was nice to have a journal, a collection of all our recipes. In November 2010 opened Edgar, our tiny café.